Note: Until this point, the material presented has been at the conceptual level and has been sparing in the actual design and setup detail. This section takes the first steps toward understanding how to design a solution. Throughout the next several sections, the design concepts will also have pointers to actual case studies containing cookbook setup steps.

This section describes the considerations and methodologies associated with the design and implementation of a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN). The items detailed here represent a set of best practices that have been collected though SAN engagements with EMC customers and verified through testing in the EMC E-Lab.

While there is no substitute for tracking actual data traffic, application and storage utilization, and performance characterizations, there is still a need for determining a set of rules to approach the initial designing of a fabric. It is the objective of this section to outline some of the considerations involved in the designing of reliable fabrics and to provide some recommendations to managing a fabric's expansion over time.

It is imperative that after the initial fabric has been implemented, it be continually monitored to evaluate the success of the design and actual bandwidth utilization and to identify future needs for expansion.

To help design a fabric, the following topics are discussed in this section:
Section 2.1.1, “Fabric design considerations”
Section 2.1.2,”Common fabric topologies”
Section 2.1.3,”Nonstandard topologies”
Section 2.1.4,”Layout management”
Section 2.1.5,”Switch interoperability”
Section 2.1.6,”Multisite fabrics”
Section 2.1.7,”Tap e connectivity”
Section 2.1.8,”General fabric design recommendations”